“The word fractal, once introduced, had an extraordinary integrating effect upon myself and upon many people around.”

—  Benoît Mandelbrot

Segment 67
Peoples Archive interview
Context: The word fractal, once introduced, had an extraordinary integrating effect upon myself and upon many people around. Initially again it was simply a word to write a book about, but once a word exists one begins to try to define it, even though initially it was simply something very subjective and indicating my field. Now the main property of all fractals, put in very loose terms, is that each part — they're made of parts — each part is like the whole except it is smaller. After having coined this word I sorted my own research over a very long period of time and I realised that I had been doing almost nothing else in my life.

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Benoît Mandelbrot photo
Benoît Mandelbrot 56
Polish-born, French and American mathematician 1924–2010

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